B5 rewatch: 1x03-5

[icepixie]

1x03: Not the Mindprobe! Born to the Purple
Ohhhhh, Susan. Right from the beginning, your life is a ball of suck. And now the A-plot with Adira and Londo is even more bitter and less sweet after knowing what happens to her later. :(

So, if the senior staff and the ambassadors are the only ones who know about the gold channels, should you really be talking about them in front of everyone in C&C? Just a thought. (These people are always doing that! Every time they talk about something that ought to be secret, they do it right. in. the. open.)

Hee, I'd forgotten about Vir's Gameboy.

Ivanova and Garibaldi are SO CUTE when they banter. So, so cute. "Perhaps a cry for help?" *ships SO HARD*

Ko'Dath was kind of amusing, actually. Not nearly as amusing as Na'Toth, but nevertheless...

I can see why they dropped the insect fellow after S1, but he was kind of nifty.

Like all the cool kids are doing, I skipped 1x04: Infection, because once was definitely enough.

1x05: Parliament of Dreams
Something that bothered me the first time through, and bothers me even more now, is the Planet of Hats troping JMS engages in in this episode. All the other species either have just one religion, or they played fair and only showed their dominant religion. But humans are speshul, and so they had to have eeeeveryone, and then it was just a meet-n-greet, not really in the spirit of things. On the one hand, the rest of the show is about humans taking their place in the galaxy, and is human-centric for not-unreasonable reasons, so it's not unexpected that they might get more attention here. On the other hand, it knocks down the credibility of your alien species to make them monolithic like that, and especially to juxtapose their all-one-religion-ness with the humans' variety.

Which is a shame, because otherwise, this episode is the best of probably the first several episodes of S1. (Possibly that is my G'Kar bias talking. I love him even before he undergoes all his changes.) I mean, there's Narn light opera! Lennier and Na'Toth show up! Delenn and Sinclair maybe get married! *snerk* I freaking love the "not many fishies" song. And I love that it comes back later, when G'Kar and Londo are stuck in the elevator together. (Speaking of which, this show just pulls out all the relationship cliches for them, doesn't it? Hee.) And then G'Kar tells his food to stay put. Because it's crawling off his plate. BWAH.

I love how Ivanova's having such a good time at the Centauri bash. She obviously had several drinks either before or during that dinner.

Knowing that Sinclair becomes Valen puts a whole new spin on the Minbari ceremony. It totally looks like a take off on the eucharist--the fruit transubstantiates into something metaphorical, there's a godlike figure who's always with you and will take care of you after you taste of your death... Why am I not surprised that Sinclair soon reveals his Catholicism.

And Lennier arrives! I love that conversation he and Delenn have, where she tells him to look up, because she can't have an aide who will always be running into things. Ohhhh, I ship them so much more than I do Sheridan/Delenn. I'm sick, I know. (After seeing the blooper reel, in their final getting-to-know-you scene, I always add "Beatlemania is back" in response to Delenn's "No, tell me of home." Hee.)

Na'Toth shows up too! I love Na'Toth. Eee. I want her and Ivanova to sit in the Zocalo and snark on everyone for a nice long time.

Poor Catherine got some horrible dialogue to deal with, but I still like her quite a bit. She's got her own life, and is very successful at surveying, but she still sometimes wants someone to celebrate with. Too bad she got shafted at the end of the season. (I hear she gets some justice in one of the novels. Which I own, but haven't gotten around to reading yet.)

Comments

[bessemerprocess]

Don't we find out later that the Narn follow several different prophets? G'Quan and G'Lan and maybe someone else?

And really, of all the people to pull of a conspiracy later on, these guys have got to be the worst at it, because you are right, they never seem to notice who they say things in front of or really, who the trust until much later on.

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

a) READ TO DREAM IN THE CITY OF SHADOWS FOR SRS!! I love it. I love Jeff. I love Catherine. In fact, my cracked-out recap of Parliament of Dreams was something like:

CATHERINEEEEE!!! Yes, that's the upshot of this episode for me. Catherine Catherine Catherine! With all the AWFULLY cheesy dialogue and the entire episode feeling so operatic... and yet and yet and yet Catherine/Sinclair is so wonderful.

And the pants! I fucking love the pants.

:)

I did actually rewatch Infection at one point not long ago, and I fast-forwarded through a bunch of it, but I loveeeee the idea that Sinclair is totally aimless since the war. That's what made me truly love his character.

And "Born to the Purple" has one my favorite moments -- G'Kar and Kodath playing with Vir's gameboy. Hahaha. Oh, and Talia/Sinclair. Because there's a reason I ship Talia/EVERYONE. This was the episode where I warmed up to Susan. Amusingly enough, when I wrote my cracked recaps, apparently I had just read an Ivanova/Garibaldi fic, because I mention that I tried to see it in this episode and couldn't. ;) Because I hadn't met YOU yet! You sell that ship well.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

To be fair - The Narn don't seem to have a single religion either. And it does make sense that the more unified/hierarchical Minbari and Centauri would have a 'state religion', while the more egalitarian Narn and Humans don't.

(And I assume Centauri religion is like Roman polytheism - it absorbs and acknowledges dozens of minor cults. And there's a line elsewhere where Vir mentions he doesn't recognise one of the 'official' gods.)